After trading away first-round pick, Pats take Collins from So. Miss.

Thursday

FOXBORO — New England decided not to use its 29th pick in the NFL Draft Thursday night and instead traded it to Minnesota, which used it to take Tennessee wide receiver Cordarrelle Patterson.

In turn, the Pats received the Vikings’ second-round pick (52nd overall), third (83rd), fourth (102) and seventh (229).

“We had conversations with a few teams. This was an opportunity that we thought made sense for us,” said Nick Caserio, the Pats’ player personnel director. “It’s an opportunity to add more players to our team. We feel there are a lot of good players that are still available.

“We thought it made sense for our football team. That’s why we did what we did,” Caserio said.

With their first selection, New England chose Jamie Collins, a 6-foot-4, 239-pound outside linebacker from Southern Mississippi.

The move increased the number of choices for the Pats from five to eight. New England now has two seconds (52, 59), two thirds (83, 91), a fourth (102) and three sevenths (226, 229, 235).

“We were ready to pick. We had a few players that we actually had in mind that we were going to talk about to consider picking,” Caserio said. “Then we decided to make the move that we did.

“A few of them remain, I would say,” Caserio said of the players the Pats were considering taking with the 29th choice.

Caserio felt that from New England’s perspective there were few surprises in the first round. The Pats had seven or eight offensive linemen as potential first-round picks, and nine were taken. There usually is an emphasis on the defensive front seven, and 18 were taken, he noted.

“I wouldn’t say there was too much that was all that surprising,” he offered.

If there was one thing that stood out it was that Minnesota ended up with three first-round choices.

Since the Pats still have players they were considering taking in the first round on the board, Caserio was asked if the team would consider moving up in the second round.

“Possibly. We’ll see how it goes,” he said. “If some of those players start to come off, then if we want to make a move up we have a little more flexibility to do that. I think we’re open to anything at this point. We’ll have to see how it unfolds tomorrow when we get started.”

Not a single running back was taken. Only one quarterback was picked and that was a surprise, with Buffalo taking EJ Manuel of Florida State, not Geno Smith of West Virginia, who at one point was thought by some to be a top five pick.

The Pats have now made at least one trade during the draft in every year except one since Bill Belichick became coach.

Meanwhile, the three rivals in the AFC-East all were active and made interesting moves.

Miami created the first big waves of the night when it traded its first (12th) and second round (42nd) picks to Oakland so it could take Oregon pass rusher Dion Jordan.

The Jets, who many expected to chase offensive help, lost an opporturnity to take wide receiver Tavon Austin of West Virginia, a player they were thought to be interested in, when St. Louis traded up to get the eighth selection, one pick ahead of the Jets.

The Jets responded by taking Dee Milliner, an Alabama star who was widely hailed as the best defensive back in the draft, but who has been hounded by injury. He has had five surgeries. The choice is all the more interesting since Milliner likely will slide into the spot vacated by Darrelle Revis, who was traded to Tampa Bay.

With the 13th pick obtained from the Bucs for Revis, the Jets stayed with defense again taking defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson of Missouri.

The Bills caused made news, too, although perhaps not in the way they would prefer.

They did what many expected by taking a quarterback with the 16th obtained in a trade from St. Louis which saw Buffalo drop down from the eighth spot. Rather than Geno Smith of West Virginia or Ryan Nassib of Syracuse, the two quarterbacks the team was thought to be interested in, the Bills went with Florida State’s EJ Manuel, a player few had listed as a first-round prospect.

Draft party

The Patriots team made big news even before the first selection in the draft was made, and it had nothing to do with football.

Team officials turned the annual draft-night party they host for about 1,000 of their season-ticket holders at Gillette Stadium into a memorable event by bringing in some special guests, 25 members of the Boston Police Department who were among the first responders at the Boston Marathon bombing. Robert Kraft, the Patriots owner, called the policemen officers to the stage and each was presented with a Patriots’ jersey with “Boston 1” on the back.

Kraft then announced that the fund raising effort the Patriots and Revolution Charitable Trusts had organized to raise money for the “One Fund-Boston” campaign has been a huge success. Kraft had pledged that his family’s charity trusts would match donations made by fans up to $100,000.

The fans and the trust went far beyond that.

“I’m happy to announce right now that we will be contributing tomorrow $617,000,” Kraft said. “Money started pouring in. Then I had friends call me … people sending small gifts, $10, $25. I bet there are over 500 people here tonight who made gifts to this fund.”

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell was among those making a contribution.

Dan Linskey, the superintendent in chief of the Boston police, spoke on behalf of the responders.

“Ordinarily I would say that Bob Kraft and the coach have the best team in the entire country,” Linskey said. “But I think I’m privileged to be involved with the best team in the entire country.”

“Within 22 minutes, every victim was in a hospital,” Linskey said of the more than 180 //CE:260 is the AP’s number as of Thursday//260 harmed in the attack bombings.

“I put that on the radio (to responding officers), be aware we probably have additional devices here. And the officers kept coming. They didn’t care. They had to get those people out. There are men and women with me here today who were in Watertown the other night and exchanged gun fire with individuals who were trying to kill us.”

“How these people responded was unbelievable,” Kraft said of the first responders., “tThese are true heroes.”

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